Top Tips for Non-Native English Speakers

As a coach and global teacher, I have actually worked with thousands of current as well as future leaders that are bright, and also capable– and also that swiftly shed their confidence and proficiency when making business presentations. For a subset of these leaders– those that have to present in English when it isn’t their native language– the stakes and the tension can feel even greater. At the same time, the requirement for leaders to be able to present in English is growing at a rapid pace. “English is required for global collaboration and worldwide success”, according to Harvard Business College,”

However, being obliged to speak in your non-native language
can lead to feelings of frustration, pressure, and also insecurity. When
non-native public speakers are forced to communicate in English, they can
really feel that their worth to the business has actually been decreased,
regardless of their fluency degree. Add to that the worry of making official
organisation discussions in front of superiors, decision-makers, and also vital
stakeholders in your non-native language, and the anxiousness is substantially
better.

One leader whose key additional languages are Hebrew as well
as Spanish, but who speaks mostly in English, confessed that she felt
“awkward” about her “weird and amusing accent” that seemed
to get larger the more anxious she really felt. She additionally shared that
she really felt much less efficient in spontaneity– and also much less
clever– when she presented in English. A Chinese leader shared, “When I
can’t locate words I require, I realize the simplest word rather. So a calamity
would be like stating ‘you guys’ at a formal conference.” And a Korean
leader was much more concerned: “I assume one will be proficient at
providing what they have actually prepared, yet if the presentation goes beyond
this extent, the circumstance can turn your brain to mush, and also it ends up
being a catastrophe.”

Certainly, even indigenous English speechmakers frequently
prepare for calamity when making presentations.. But for non-native presenters,
the waiting and situational stress and anxiety associated with their distinct
difficulties– being reasonable, selecting the ideal words, talking
spontaneously– can be frustrating. In addition, if these worries hinder your
desire or capacity to make company discussions, the influence can be job
restricting.

Here are three techniques non-native English speakers can
use to aid them really feel more certain before, during, and after a
discussion:

Invest dramatically more time practicing your statement than
perfecting your deck. When we asked our clients to show us the percentage of
time spent on preparation, making, and also refining their PowerPoint slides
compared to exercising or talking the presentation aloud, the majority of them
confessed that they spent nearly no time doing the latter. While this is
frequently a trouble for native speakers as well, for non-native English public
speakers, practice session and repeating are specifically important action in
getting ready for a successful presentation. The objective here is
“overlearning” your presentation– pushing on with technique also
when it appears like you’ve done enough. This will assist your discussion to
become embedded in your long-term memory you’ll be  much less vulnerable to the impacts of
anxiety.

Don’t agonize regarding your accent, however do reduce your
speaking speed. Everyone has an accent of some sort, consisting of native
English speechmakers. Also, people who stay in different parts of one country
can be identified by their accents. Your accent can be a problem for your
audiences, nevertheless, if they have trouble comprehending you. An unfamiliar
accent is specifically troublesome in the very first minute or two of your
presentation when your target market have to at first strain to recognize you.
According to a study in Frontiers in Person Neuroscience, writers claim that audiences
who are listening to accented speech of any kind experience “reductions in
intelligibility, coherence, and handling rate– the very same results triggered
by hearing loss or poor  sound.” By
slowing down your speaking speed, you aid your target to make  better the barriers of  actually listening to and understanding you.
Pick your opening words intentionally and pronounce them very carefully, making
sure to express your words, not simply rush with them. As your presentation
continues, the problem will be less intense as the audience  will slowly establish an ear for your accent,
making it much easier to understand what you are saying.

Use pauses! Pause early as well as often. Stopping briefly in
your discussion offers 2 advantages– initially, to help your target market
comprehend your message, and second, to provide you a break. Researchers have  discovered that comprehending accented speech
calls for audiences to draw on extra cognitive sources, not only to recognize
and remember what has been said yet also to manage various other info or jobs
while paying attention to accented speech. When you pause, you provide your
listeners an opportunity to relax from drawing upon their cognitive resources,
as well as to absorb what you’re claiming. However your pause is additionally a
chance for you– you get to keep in mind or consider what you wish to say next,
examine your notes, checked out signs from the audience, maybe even take a sip
of water. You can likewise use a pause to construct rapport with your audience
by checking with them about your rate and also pronunciation by saying
something like, “Let me pause for a minute here. I recognize that I am
making total sense to myself in [Spanish/French/Japanese/ Hindi/your native
language] Exactly how am I carrying out in English?” Not only will you
most likely obtain some immediate positive as well as helpful feedback from
your audience, you will also get to relax, breathe, and also collect your
thoughts.

For both native as well as non-native English presenters,
perfection is overvalued. However with some added effort, initiative, and also
commitment, non-native English speechmakers can present  with absolute confidence and proficiency.

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“Tell Them About the Dream, Martin”

It was this shout from the crowd by soul singer Mahalia
Jackson that prompted Martin Luther King to abandon his notes and extemporise
his way into what is often regarded as the greatest speech in history.

The interjection from Mahalia Jackson reminds us that the
speech was like a conversation. It was given with a great sense of crowd
involvement. It was about sharing. Indeed the theme at the core of the speech:
shared suffering, shared hope, shared destiny.

“Our white brothers…
have come to realise that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.”

Although the speech is littered with allusions to the Bible
and although it borrows much from gospel sermons, Martin Luther King was not
preaching. Throughout the speech Martin Luther King is emphasising what people
share. And most importantly of all he emphasises that what all share most is
being “American”.

He says:

“I still have a dream”

But then he explains in the next sentence:

“It is a dream deeply
rooted in the American dream.”

He is talking of the American Dream. Something shared,
universal and based on what “the architects of our republic wrote”:

“the magnificent words
of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence”

At the start of the speech Martin Luther King refers to
“Five score years ago” an echo of Lincoln’s phrase in the Gettysburg address
“four score and seven years ago…”. This was itself referring back to the
Declaration of Independence of 1776.

So running through the speech is continuity and shared
ideals of the American Dream. Martin Luther King is saying that to be American
is believe in the “unalienable Rights”

He defined a vision for the people. In short Martin Luther
King was defining for America what it was to be American. And that still holds
true today, just as he “prophesied”:

“Nineteen sixty-three
is not an end, but a beginning.”

The speech constantly refers actually or metaphorically to a
journey.

It feels like it was made at a stopping point on a march.
And of course. it was made at the Lincoln Memorial, symbol of white American
achievement.

The speech was delivered to, largely, people of colour, but
it was really aimed at the white people of America. The people who would hear
the speech not “live”, but through radio and the TV and in the newspapers.

Above all, this was a speech meant to be broadcast, with a
full understanding and sense of what broadcast technologies would do.

It’s right there in his call:

“And so let freedom
ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from
the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from
the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from
the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from
the curvaceous slopes of California.”

 The people on “the
prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire” and “the curvaceous slopes of California”
were white people getting the news. And for “let freedom ring” read the unseen
‘airwaves’ of TV and radio. These were the unseen, elemental forces that would
bring a new America together. King knew this. He played upon it and he knew
that ultimately broadcasting would deliver his dream of all men being equal,
because all men would be interconnected.

Finally, although this speech is about being black and
white; it is never black and white itself. He does not blame or divide;

He calls for his audience to:

“rise to the majestic
heights of meeting physical force with soul force”

There is a “soul force” coursing through the speech. It is
there in the anaphora, (the repeated use of certain words or phrases) of “Let
freedom ring”, “one hundred years…”, “we cannot be satisfied…” and above all of
course, in the most famous of all repeated statements “I have a dream”.

The power and fame of this speech comes down to that phrase
“I have a dream”. It shows that, at heart, speech making is about putting out a
vision, a dream of how you want the world to be. John F Kennedy, King’s contemporary,
knew this. All great leaders know this.

Indeed to paraphrase Kennedy: If you want to change with
world, make a speech.

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Greta Thunberg speech on climate change

Greta Thunberg delivered a powerful speech to MPs at the Houses of Parliament on 22nd April, telling the politicians: “You did not act in time”.

And the interesting thing about the speech was the way that she used expectations to create insight. For example, her age was used, not as an excuse, but as a means to create a persuasive force within her speech. She did play on the fact she was just 16 years old, but not in the way they had expected.

Rewilding our World

First, she talked in very simple, personal terms of 2030:

“In the year 2030 I will be 26 years old. My little sister Beata will be 23. Just like many of your own children or grandchildren. That is a great age, we have been told.”

Then she made it political:

“Around the year 2030,
10 years 252 days and 10 hours away from now, we will be in a position where we
set off an irreversible chain reaction beyond human control, that will most
likely lead to the end of our civilisation as we know it.”

It was a brilliant transition, precisely because no-one saw
it coming, the audience was expecting more cute observations. And then they
were hit with a thunderous statement: “ the end of our civilisation”. It was
like Roger Federer shaping up for a cross court – only to hit a winner down the
line.

A Just Transition

Similarly the audience expected her to talk about the need
to increase current actions to save the environment. (That’s the way most
speeches on saving the planet go – “We must do more”!) But she did not. She
told them it was all too late for that. She was not there to talk about doing more,
but doing different.

So we say: “We have to
start treating the crisis like a crisis – and act even if we don’t have all the
solutions.”

“That’s still not an
answer,” you say.

Then we start talking
about circular economy and rewilding nature and the need for a just transition.
Then you don’t understand what we are talking about.

“Circular economy”, “rewilding nature”, “a just transition”:
these are more of the same they are new and different solutions. A new language
even.

Cathedral Thinking

This new language – born out of the realisation that the old ways won’t solve the crisis in time – reached its best expression in a phrase that summed up her whole argument and perhaps her whole being:

“Avoiding climate
breakdown will require cathedral thinking. We must lay the foundation while we
may not know exactly how to build the ceiling.”

Despite all the talk of science, actually here was a young woman
looking to the future and asking us to take a leap of faith, believe in a new way of doing things. Because the established logic
and indeed the establishment just hasn’t worked. And the time is up. Interesting
because that position is reflected in the public debate. We have all heard the
numbers on climate change over and over again. And the facts don’t change
anything. The science doesn’t shift public opinion. We have to find a new path.
We have to find a new belief. Because it’s the emotions we must win over if we
are to persuade.

For a full text of Greta’s speech click here

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When is a speech “dangerous”?

A recent article in the Washington Post has taken aim at President Trump’s political rhetoric and in particular referenced the work of American University professor Susan Benesch.

Benesch has spent much of the the last decade of academic research developing a framework to identify what she calls “dangerous speech,” or speech that can lead to violence. To qualify at the level of dangerous speech, she suggests, at least two of these five indicators must be true:

• A powerful speaker with a high degree of influence over the audience.
• The audience has grievances and fears that the speaker can cultivate.
• A speech act that is clearly understood as a call to violence.
• A social or historical context that is propitious for violence, for a variety of reasons, including long-standing competition between groups for resources, lack of efforts to solve grievances or previous episodes of violence.
• A means of dissemination that is influential in itself, for example because it is the sole or primary source of news for the relevant audience.

While these may well be very useful guides to understanding what might be an inflammatory speech, a number of these points would also cover some of the most famous speeches in history. Consider Shakespeare’s Henry V “St Crispin’s Day” speech:

 

“If we are mark’d to die, we are enough

To do our country loss; and if to live,

The fewer men, the greater share of honour.

God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.

By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,

Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;

It yearns me not if men my garments wear;

Such outward things dwell not in my desires.

But if it be a sin to covet honour,

I am the most offending soul alive.

No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.

God’s peace! I…Read More

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We Choose to Go to the Moon

President Kennedy once remarked:”The only reason to make a speech is to change the world”. Rather than presenting a daunting ambition, this remark should be an inpiration to us all when making a speech. Because of course, the subtext to his remark was a firm belief that speeches do change your world. They can be a source of enormous personal influence.

And the proof of this lies with President Kennedy himself. He changed the world through speeches. An example: the way he used speeches to change the hearts of minds of America to support his moon landing program. At that time it was far from a popular challenge in the mind of the people or the scientific community. But Kennedy changes all that.

His famous speech at Rice University in which he made that remark “We choose to go to the Moon” is the most well known, but in fact Kennedy made numerous speeches on the subject, all deliberately aimed at changing opinion. In fact he made numerous comments on the subject over a period of a year or more. They serve as a master class for any leader or CEO in how to use speeches to change hearts and minds. In fact a recent article in Forbes magazine, reviews research by Wharton Professor, Andrew Carton, of thousands of pages of documents which breaks down the secret to Kennedy’s persuasion into four golden rules:

1. Focus on one clear specific goal.

In 1961, NASA’s mission was broad and without a target. Kennedy changed this by creating a clear and ambitious goal. “Our aim is to develop a new frontier in science.” he said. That frontier was a moon landing and all that came with it.

2. Give actual objectives.

In a speech to Congress in 1961, Kennedy committed the moon landing to a specific time frame: “before this decade is out”. A date…Read More

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Rhetoric in the 21st Century

Speechwriting is supposed to be somewhat of a dark art, a means to manipulate. But in fact it’s largely about hard graft.

As Mark Twain once remarked:

“It usually takes me more than three weeks to write a good impromptu speech.

While writing great speeches is mostly about hard work, there are some tools of the trade that help one along the way.

Speechwriting seems to have emerged as an art/profession in Ancient Greece, around the 5th Century BC with the early Sophists. They were itinerant writers who helped members of the public articulate their argument at courts; mostly over legal disputes. The stakes were high and the living was good. But from the very beginning it seems that speechwriters or sophists were regarded as an untrustowrthy bunch, willing to use words to bend the facts to the advantage of their customers. (Not much has changed there then).

Even the word sophistry still carries a pejorative edge, laced with caution, like “spin doctor”.

The first Titans of the speech writing profession were Carax and Tisias. And later Isocrates (pictured below, oh noble man), who was a contemporary of Plato, and who started up the first school for speech writing.

These early champions discovered the smooth arts of persuasion. And they put these tools together under the overall heading of Rhetoric. The fascinating thing is that the tricks and turns of language that they discovered still hold true today.

In fact not only is Rhetoric alive and kicking in the 21st Century, I believe it would be impossible to write consistently with rhetoric.

The language of rhetoric is still dominated by Ancient Greek terminology. For example “enthymeme” meaning the connection between ideas.

Speech making is the art of articulating the relationship between ideas.

And then finding new and ever more vivid ways to express these relationships.For example the idea might be:

“Increasing the rate of corporation tax will…Read More

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The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton